


Rick's Christmas Miracle

by Lupienne



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (Comics), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Cheesy, Christmas, Fluff, Holiday, M/M, Mistletoe, Sappy, Short, comic Rick Grimes, comic negan - Freeform, platonic fluff, platonic regan, regan - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21960487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lupienne/pseuds/Lupienne
Summary: Rick receives a few Miracles this Christmas.
Relationships: Rick Grimes/Negan
Kudos: 19





	Rick's Christmas Miracle

**Author's Note:**

> I originally started this short fic last Christmas but got stumped on wrapping it up, so it gathered dust till this year. I cobbled together an ending that I guess is ok. I seem to have done a few of these ‘Rick delivers supplies to Negan’ fics but hey…it’s how it should be. Fuck canon. Lol! (As usual for me, this fic is Comic-based)

“You sure you want to make the trip? Snow might still be deep off the roads.”

Heath was reluctant to let Rick and Silver pass through Alexandria’s gates.

“I’m a week late.”

“A few more days wouldn’t hurt. What if you don’t make it back in time?”

Nobody knew the real date anymore. Together, the town had crafted a new calendar, guessing the positions of holidays. Christmas sat only a few days away on their chart of time’s passage.

“I’ll be back in time.”

Heath pursed his lips, but his only comment was: “Hopefully the cold took care of that vermin. Then you won’t have to do this anymore.”

He was too good to question Rick directly. It wasn’t Rick’s integrity he hated…just the current recipient of it. Everyone in town had an opinion. Sure, Negan had done _something or anothe_ r to help Alexandria…. but did he really deserve a monthly drop-off of supplies indefinitely? 

“Hopefully,” Rick mummered, and Heath finally stepped out of his path. The truth was, Rick enjoyed the trip. He liked getting away.

He maybe even liked seeing Negan… but _no way, no how._ He wouldn’t go so far as to say _that._

—-

Heath’s concerns were for nothing. The driving snows that had delayed this supplies drop had melted into slush. Silver slipped a few times on the sodden ground. But overall, the old mare was happy to be free from her stable. She moved at a steady pace, carrying Rick to the outskirts of Negan’s ‘neighborhood’.

He paused on the slight incline above the empty array of cookie-cutter homes. Strangely, his heart pounded in his chest. Maybe Heath was right, and cold had done Negan in. It’d been three weeks since his last visit. Starvation was surely a possibility as well.

_Despair._  
  
If Negan’s thoughts were anything like the dark things that fluttered through Rick’s mind… there were other reasons for death as well. Loneliness could kill.

He sucked in a breath, feeling stupid. His personal vermin would be doing him a favor by lying there dead, wouldn’t he? His eyes scoured the rooftops, and that breath came out in a rush. His heart bobbed upwards.

Smoke rose from the farthest chimney.

“Guess we’re still delivering, girl.”

-

They trotted into Negan’s 'yard’. He snorted. The man somehow knew Christmas was nearing. He’d decorated with a shoddy plastic wreath on the door, and tinsel draped over Lucille’s cross. At least Negan didn’t have to bother with lights – considering he had no electricity. Rick wasn’t surprised to see a large, lopsided snowman standing near the front door.

He turned to Silver. “Well, a _child_ does live here.”

He did his custom two knocks with a pause before the third. No answer. Negan must have gone on an errand.

Rick sighed. He supposed he could drop the stuff and leave.

He turned back to face the yard, noticing the snowman’s face from this angle. Two rock eyes and a pebble mouth. A tree-root nose, because even if Negan had found a carrot, he wouldn’t waste it here. Stick arms. Rick’s eyes dropped to what passed for a snowman’s crotch. A thick stick jutted outwards.

He raised his cane, debating knocking off the wooden woody, when he heard a sound from the nearby woods. He tensed, until he caught sight of the leather jacket and bright red hat. Negan emerged from the trees, huffing as he pulled a child’s sled behind him. It was loaded with sticks and wood.

The predictable stupid smile came across the other man’s face. “Hey, Prick! See you’re admiring my friend there. I modeled him after me, you know. Long and thick.”

The warming air was making Frosty’s stick droop in the melting snow. Rick smirked.

“It’s been cold as fucking hell,” Negan let go of the sled once he was closer. “Been snowed in for a few days. And hungry. Where have you been?”

“It snowed all over, Negan.”

“Yeah.” Negan scratched at his chin. He was growing his beard out again. He looked a bit like a lumberjack. He’d replaced his old red scarf with a red-and-black checked one. “I thought maybe you were hoping I’d croak from the elements.”

“I could never be so lucky.”

Negan pouted. Rick unbuckled Silver’s saddlebag. “If I’d known you were doing the beard thing, I wouldn’t have brought more razors.”

“Just for the winter. Any more pork n’ beans?”

“Nope. We’re fresh out.”

“Fuck…”

“Annie has been baking though. I brought you some pecan pie.” Rick hefted the saddlebag and nodded at Negan to take the other.

“You didn’t bring me any figgy pudding?”

Rick let out a laugh. “Oh damn. Left that back on the kitchen counter. Has anyone actually eaten figgy pudding…?”

“Well, you know what they say…” Negan bounded in front of him, swinging open the door to his home. Rick hoped he’d used his snowed-in time to clean that fucking pig-sty. “ _You_ won’t go until I _get some._ ”

Rick raised an eyebrow as Negan stood just inside the threshold. He’d known the man long enough to recognize that devious glint in his eyes.

“Guess I ain’t going then…” Despite Heath’s worries, Rick wasn’t entirely eager to spend Christmas in Alexandria. Sure, seeing his people be festive and merry was great and all, but Carl was away at the Hilltop and Andrea…

He pushed that thought away.

“Heh. That means I’ll have to cook something. Hope you like dog food casserole.”

Rick paused in the doorway, narrowing his eyes. “Negan, can you move-”

“Here, gimmie.” Negan grabbed the saddlebag from him and dropped them on the floor. Rick tried to peer around him, wondering what he was hiding. Maybe he was embarrassed because the house was _still_ a mess.   
  
“Well, well. Would ya look at that?” Negan grinned wide, pointing a finger upwards. “I was hoping a hot chick would happen by one of these days… but I’ll take what I can get.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Fake mistletoe was tacked on the door frame above their heads.

“You know the rules. Pucker up, Grimes.”

“Ugh.” Rick shoved past him into the besotted bachelor pad. _“_ I am not kissing you.”

“But it’s the holiday fucking tradition.”

Rick ignored that, stepping out from under the accursed plant. “Just empty the bags, Negan.” He stood in the room, surveying the mess.

The big man pouted as he began to unpack his supplies, setting them in a pile. Canned food, razors, the pie. A pair of warm gloves. Other things, like matches and a canister of kindling sticks. He’d brought extra food this time. Probably a good thing. Under the beard, Negan looked like he’d lost even more weight.

“You ever thought of moving…?”

“Why? You sick of coming out here? You don’t have to, you know…” Negan held the pie in both hands, casting his eyes down to it. “I’m fine. I don’t need your fucking charity.”

“No. Just wondering what keeps you here.”

“One dump is the same as another…” Negan set the pie down. “And Lucille…” He trailed off, and Rick felt a pang of sympathy.

He wondered what it would be like if he came out here and found the house vacated. If Negan was finally out of his hair.

Weird how it caused the same ache as Carl’s absence and the empty silence of his home. He collected the saddlebags and headed for the door.

“You want any pie…?”

“I got so many pies and cakes at home I can’t even keep up.” Rick knew Annie and the others were drowning him in sweets out of pity.

“Oh…” Negan sounded disappointed, but Rick couldn’t think of any good excuses to stay. He’d delivered the supplies. Now it was time to leave.

“Maybe I can bring you some figgy pudding next time…” Rick said lightly. He didn’t know why he cared- but he wanted to dispel that forlorn look in Negan’s eyes. He knew what it was like to spend this holiday alone, with nothing to warm the heart.

“Yeah…maybe.” Negan followed him to the front door, his gaze flitting up to the mistletoe as Rick paused under it. Rick snorted. No way, no how that he was gonna follow _that_ tradition-

_Fuck it._ Maybe he _could_ warm Negan’s season just a tiniest bit. Or just simply deliver a good ole mindfuck, the present Negan had given him so many times over the years.

Old Man Rick could still move fast when he wanted – even on his bum knee. And his aim was still precise as fuck. He turned, and landed a rough smooch right on Negan’s mouth.

They both had chapped lips, so it was a strange slide of dry skin catching on itself. Rick didn’t linger, but settled back on his feet, clutching his cane tight. He chuckled softly as a flush as red as Santa’s suit spread across Negan’s cheeks.

“Merry Christmas, Negan.”

And _lo,_ how Rick beheld a Christmas Miracle!

“…shit…Rick…” Negan sputtered, after a stunning _thirty seconds_ of silence… “I uh…I was just joking, you know…”

“Uh huh…” Rick grinned as he began to strap on Silver’s saddlebags. “Sure you were. And as it looks like it’s gonna snow again…you’re so not going to ask me to spend the night, right?”

“Uh…no..” The lying fuck shifted on his feet, his cheeks still like roses. “….but if you want to-”

“No. You’ve only got one bed. And my _cane_ takes up a lot of space.”

There was another blessed span of quiet, but maybe shorter than the last. Rick didn’t mind. He couldn’t expect two miracles in a row-

“Fucking Christmas miracle…” Negan stood owl-eyed, as Rick clambered atop the old mare. “…Prick Grimes…making a dick joke…?”

Rick just chuckled, shook his head, and spurred Silver away _,_ to his empty and cold home back in Alexandria .

——

But when he arrived, it was lit and warm and he smelled one of Annie’s endless pies warming in the oven.

Carl and Lydia had trekked the snowy roads from the Hilltop just for him, their happy presence marking the third Miracle of Rick Grime’s Christmas season.

“Next time…” he said, to a befuddled Carl, his mouth full of fresh pecan pie,

“…Remind me to pack some chapstick for Negan.”


End file.
